Enlarge / Therapeutic coffee?
In the distant future, your morning cup of joe may not just perk up your brain-it may perk up your genes, too. At least, that's the optimistic outlook of some synthetic biologists in Switzerland.
A team led by Martin Fussenegger of ETH Zurich in Basel has shown that caffeine can be used as a trigger for synthetic genetic circuitry, which can then in turn do useful things for us-even correct or treat medical conditions. For a buzz-worthy proof of concept, the team engineered a system to treat type 2 diabetes in mice with sips of coffee, specifically Nespresso...Read more ...